Mother questions South Bend school over decision on child

Student, 5, was supposed to ride after-school bus but walked home alone.

Student, 5, was supposed to ride after-school bus but walked home alone.

November 16, 2006|Tribune Staff Report

SOUTH BEND -- The mother of a 5-year-old kindergarten student is upset that her son was allowed to walk home alone earlier this week from Coquillard Primary Center. Nakia Terry said her son was supposed to ride the bus home following an after-school detention Monday afternoon, but he became confused and told the driver he would walk home. Coquillard is at 1245 N. Sheridan Ave, nearly a mile from the boy's home on Prast Boulevard. The child was near the intersection of Prast and Bendix Drive when an employee at Honeywell noticed him about 4:30 p.m. and called police, Terry said. The responding officer then dropped the child off at home, where his father was waiting for him, Terry said. The child was unharmed. Terry doesn't understand how school officials could let her son walk away. She said the boy's teacher told her the detention would end at 3:45 p.m. and he would then ride the after-school bus home. Terry said it was the first time her son had to attend an after-school detention, and he wasn't sure what to do afterward. "He was walked out to the bus, but the driver said it was the day-care bus." Terry said. "He said he doesn't go to day care and that he was supposed to walk home. He was confused. He's never walked home before. It was the first time he had to take that bus." The child was about two blocks from his house when police were called. "That's not the point," Terry said. "They shouldn't just let him walk home like that. He had to cross Ardmore (Trail), Bendix (Drive) and the South Shore tracks by himself to get home." Judy Tovey, a spokeswoman for the South Bend Community School Corp., said the central office is still investigating how the incident happened.